How to use potlatch in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun, verb

Potlatch means a ceremony amongst certain indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in which gifts are bestowed upon guests and personal property is destroyed in a show of generosity and wealth. Example: “That night there was a grand wedding and a potlach; so that for two days to follow there was no fishing done by the village.”

Examples of potlatch by meaning

nounA ceremony amongst certain indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in which gifts are bestowed upon guests and...

That night there was a grand wedding and a potlach; so that for two days to follow there was no fishing done by the village.1900 April 7, Jack London, “The Wife of a King”, in The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton...
No potlatch or secret society initiation could be given by a tribal member until the chief had officially opened the winter ceremonial season.[1951], Viola E[dmundson] Garfield, “Part 1: The Tsimshian and Their Neighbors”, in Viola E. Garfield, Paul S. Wingert, Marius Barbeau...
This was the delusion of Reaganomics, the supply-siders' inability to distinguish between spending and prosperity with the result that we simply waged economic warfare on ourselves in a potlatch of mutually assured bankruptcy.1995, Michael Sorkin, “War is Swell”, in Donald Albrecht, editor, World War II and the American Dream: How Wartime Building Changed a...

verbTo give; especially, to give as a gift during a potlatch ceremony.

Then he gave out half dollars to all the Huupachas men and women because Kwalats (Gaillic's oldest boy) had stumbled against the saw he was going to potlatch.1955, Edward Sapir, Morris Swadesh, Native Accounts of Nootka Ethnography, Bloomington, Ind.: Center in Anthropology, Folklore and...
When Big Chilligan died in 1931, the shirt was potlatched to Simeon Chickalusion, the chief at Tyonek.2003, James Kari, “Alexander Creek. [Ghuliy—Potlatch Wealth.]”, in James Kari, James A. Fall, Shem Pete, Shem Pete’s Alaska: The Territory...
The surplus of recorded sound on the computers of the world cannot be potlatched because to make a digital copy does not destroy the original or reduce its value.2007 April, Paul Helliwell, “Zombie Nation”, in Josephine Berry Slater, editor, Mute, volume 2, number 5, London: Pauline van Mourik...

verbTo carry out or take part in a potlatch ceremony.

I potlatched for all the tribes when they gathered here for the museum opening.1989, Harry Assu, with Joy Inglis, Assu of Cape Mudge: Recollections of a Coastal Indian Chief, Vancouver, B.C.: University of British...

More sentences with potlatch

At potlatches a rich person invitates everyone else so he can give all his wealth away.1995 February 2, Michael Rogero Brown (Sys Admin), “Precursor of Super Bowl?”, in sci.anthropology (Usenet), archived from the original on…. From the entry invitate
The potlatch theory of the arms race also overlooks the unconscionable risk both superpowers took of omnicidal war.1995, Richard Rhodes, “Epilogue”, in Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. From the entry omnicidal
The potlatch was perhaps the most ready-made container for explaining the gospel and the kingdom of God, in all its counterintuitiveness, to native people.2010, Mark Buchanan, Spiritual Rhythm: Being with Jesus Every Season of Your Soul, page 131. From the entry ready-made
In effect, this ancient pagan belief converts death-anxiety into “thanatolatry”, a belief in “death potlatch” by means of which death is thought to mystically replenish life.2012, Kirby Farrell, “Eschatological Landscape”, in Research Gate, Brill. From the entry thanatolatry
Yet at the time of the big potlatch in the autumn the Snohomish performed their war dance and each of the tribes that had been invited did the same.1930 September, Hermann Haeberlin, Erna Gunther, “The Indians of Puget Sound”, in University of Washington Publications in Anthropology…. From the entry Snohomish

Meaning of potlatch

noun A ceremony amongst certain indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in which gifts are bestowed upon guests and personal property is destroyed in a show of generosity and wealth.
noun A communal meal to which guests bring dishes to share; a potluck.
verb To give; especially, to give as a gift during a potlatch ceremony.

Full definition of potlatch

Questions about potlatch in a sentence

How do you use potlatch in a sentence?: Potlatch is used as a noun and verb. For example: “That night there was a grand wedding and a potlach; so that for two days to follow there was no fishing done by the village.”
What is a short sentence with potlatch?: “I potlatched for all the tribes when they gathered here for the museum opening.”
What does potlatch mean?: Potlatch means a ceremony amongst certain indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in which gifts are bestowed upon guests and personal property is destroyed in a show of generosity and wealth.

Adapted from Wiktionary: potlatch (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use potlatch in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/potlatch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.